Supplement 03 - Priscilla and Aquila

Priscilla and Aquila

Pope Benedict XVI

The Church honors this married couple as 'models of conjugal life responsibly committed to the service of the entire Christian community' 

At the General Audience on Wednesday, 7 February [2007], in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall, the Holy Father continued his series of Catecheses on the Apostles of the Church. He focused on the married couple Priscilla and Aquila, who played an active part in the early Church and particularly in the ministry of St. Paul. The following is a translation of the Pope's Catechesis, given in Italian.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Taking a new step in this type of portrait gallery of the first witnesses of the Christian faith which we began some weeks ago, today we take into consideration a married couple.

The couple in question are Priscilla and Aquila, who take their place, as we already mentioned briefly last Wednesday, in the sphere of numerous collaborators who gravitated around the Apostle Paul. Based on the information in our possession, this married couple played a very active role in the post-Paschal origins of the Church.

Who are Priscilla and Aquila?

The names Aquila and Priscilla are Latin, but the man and woman who bear them were of Hebrew origin. At least Aquila, however, geographically came from the diaspora of northern Anatolia, which faces the Black Sea — in today's Turkey —, while Priscilla was probably a Jewish woman from Rome (cf. Acts 18:2).

However, it was from Rome that they reached Corinth, where Paul met them at the beginning of the 50s. There he became associated with them, as Luke tells us, practicing the same trade of making tents or large draperies for domestic use, and he was even welcomed into their home (cf. Acts 18:3).

The reason they came to Corinth was the decision taken by the Emperor Claudius to expel from Rome the city's Jewish residents. Concerning this event the Roman historian Suetonius tells us that the Hebrews were expelled because "they were rioting due to someone named Chrestus" (cf. "The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Claudius", n. 25).

One sees that he did not know the name well instead of Christ he wrote "Chrestus" — and he had only a very confused idea of what had happened. In any case, there were internal discords within the Jewish community about the question if Jesus was the Christ. And for the Emperor these problems were the reason to simply expel all Jews from Rome.

One can deduce that the couple had already embraced the Christian faith in the 40s, and now they had found in Paul someone who not only shared with them this faith — that Jesus is the Christ — but who was also an Apostle, personally called by the Risen Lord.

Therefore, their first encounter is at Corinth, where they welcomed him into their house and worked together making tents.

Continuing faith-journey abroad

In a second moment they transferred to Ephesus in Asia Minor. There they had a decisive role in completing the Christian formation of the Alexandrian Jew Apollo, who we spoke about last Wednesday.

Since he only knew the faith superficially, "Priscilla and Aquila... took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26).

When Paul wrote the First Letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus, together with his own greeting he explicitly sent those of "Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house" (16:19).

Hence, we come to know the most important role that this couple played in the environment of the primitive Church: that of welcoming in their own house the group of local Christians when they gathered to listen to the Word of God and to celebrate the Eucharist. It is exactly this type of gathering that in Greek is called "ekklesía" — the Latin word is "ecclesia", the Italian "chiesa" — which means convocation, assembly, gathering.

In the house of Aquila and Priscilla, therefore, the Church gathered, the convocation of Christ, which celebrates here the Sacred Mysteries.

Thus, we can see the very birth of the reality of the Church in the homes of believers. Christians, in fact, from the first part of the third century did not have their own places of worship. Initially it was the Jewish Synagogue, until the original symbiosis between the Old and New Testaments dissolved and the Church of the Gentiles was forced to give itself its own identity, always profoundly rooted in the Old Testament.

Then, after this "break", they gathered in the homes of Christians that thus become "Church". And finally, in the third century, true and proper buildings for Christian worship were born.

But here, in the first half of the first century and in the second century, the homes of Christians become a true and proper "Church". As I said, together they read the Sacred Scripture and celebrate the Eucharist.

That was what used to happen, for example, at Corinth, where Paul mentioned a certain "Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church" (Rom 16:23), or at Laodicea, where the community gathered in the home of a certain Nympha (cf. Col 4:15), or at Colossae, where the meeting took place in the house of a certain Archippus (cf. Phlm 2).

All roads lead to Rome

Having returned subsequently to Rome, Aquila and Priscilla continue to carry out this precious function also in the capital of the Empire.

In fact, Paul, writing to the Romans, sends this precise greeting: "Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house" (Rom 16:3-5).

What extraordinary praise for these two married persons in these words! And it is none other than Paul who extends it. He explicitly recognizes in them two true and important collaborators of his apostolate.

The reference made to having risked their lives for him is probably linked to interventions in his favor during some prison stay, perhaps in the same Ephesus (cf. Acts 19:23; I Cor 15:32; II Cor 1:8-9). And to Paul's own gratitude even that of all the Churches of the Gentiles is joined. Although considering the expression perhaps somewhat hyperbolic, it lets one intuit how vast their ray of action was and therefore, their influence for the good of the Gospel.

Later hagiographic tradition has given a very singular importance to Priscilla, even if the problem of identifying her with the martyr Priscilla remains.

In any case, here in Rome we have a Church dedicated to St. Prisca on the Aventine Hill, near the Catacombs of Priscilla on Via Salaria.

In this way, the memory of a woman who has certainly been an active person and of great value in the history of Roman Christianity is perpetuated. One thing is sure: together with the gratitude of the early Church, of which St Paul speaks, we must also add our own, since thanks to the faith and apostolic commitment of the lay faithful, of families, of spouses like Priscilla and Aquila, Christianity has reached our generation.

It could grow not only thanks to the Apostles who announced it. In order to take root in people's land and develop actively, the commitment of these families, these spouses, these Christian communities, of these lay faithful was necessary in order to offer the "humus" for the growth of the faith. As always, it is only in this way that the Church grows.

This couple in particular demonstrates how important the action of Christian spouses is. When they are supported by the faith and by a strong spirituality, their courageous commitment for the Church and in the Church becomes natural. The daily sharing of their life prolongs and in some way is sublimated in the assuming of a common responsibility in favor of the Mystical Body of Christ, even if just a little part of it. Thus it was in the first generation and thus it will often be.

A further lesson we cannot neglect to draw from their example: every home can transform itself in a little church. Not only in the sense that in them must reign the typical Christian love made of altruism and of reciprocal care, but still more in the sense that the whole of family life, based on faith, is called to revolve around the singular lordship of Jesus Christ.

Not by chance does Paul compare, in the Letter to the Ephesians, the matrimonial relationship to the spousal communion that happens between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:25-33). Even more, we can maintain that the Apostle indirectly models the life of the entire Church on that of the family. And the Church, in reality, is the family of God.

Therefore, we honor Aquila and Priscilla as models of conjugal life responsibly committed to the service of the entire Christian community. And we find in them the model of the Church, God's family for all times.

Taken from:

L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
14 February 2007, page 11

CHAPTER V OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY AND CAUSES OF THE PERSECUTIONS – THE LEGAL PROCESS

CHAPTER V

OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY AND CAUSES OF THE PERSECUTIONS –

THE LEGAL PROCESS

Introduction

As we have already seen, there were many circumstances that favored the growth of Christianity.  At the same time there were obstacles and difficulties to be overcome which, humanly speaking, were utterly insurmountable.

            St. Paul the Apostle says that preaching Christ, the Crucified, is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23).  But the greatest opposition between Christianity and paganism did not happen so much in the field of doctrine and belief.  It occurred more in the field of public life.  In ancient times, religion was not, as such, a private matter or an exclusively private affair.  It was, on the contrary, first and above all, an affair of the state. Family, society, culture were closely related and united with polytheism.  The Roman State insisted on due honor being paid to the national gods.

            The Roman State, in particular, sustained with great vigor the cult of pagan deities.  In general, Rome allowed all those conquered countries the practice of their own religion.  Not only this, most of those deities were accepted, quite easily, by the Romans.  The Roman Pantheon admitted all kinds of foreign gods.  Of these concessions, as we can imagine, those belonging to the Monotheistic religions could not avail themselves because it was not lawful to them, as it was to pagans, to adore the deity of Rome together with their own deity.

           

Jewish and Christian Religions

            The Roman State, nevertheless, was quite tolerant in regard to the Jews because their religion was national and the Hebrew proselytes were but few.  Tertullian, (Apol. 21,1) calls Judaism a “religio certe valida” under whose shadow Christianity was at first tolerated.

            But the situation of the Christians was wholly different from that of the Jews.  The Christian religion was not an ancient and national religion like that of the Jews, but new and universal.  The Church had followers in all the nations of the world and tried to eliminate all other religions.  Given the straight and, in appearance, indissoluble union between the faith in the gods and the ancient Roman State, many people believed that paganism was menaced from the root.  All these worries were the more real because the Christians, wholly justified from their own point of view rejected the cult of the emperor.  This divine cult of the Emperor, a living Emperor was considered vital to the Empire (together with the apotheosis to the dead emperor).  The cult already diffused in the East, became common in the West during Nero’s reign (54-60), and even more after Domitian (81-96).  On this divine cult to the Emperor rested the Roman religion of the state; the cult became the touchstone of civil fidelity and patriotism; in fact, those who rejected it could be accused of treachery. This was, in general, the main danger for the accused Christians.

Rejection of Roman Ways by Christianity

            Added to all this, we find that the Christians did not want to participate in the public and base spectacles of the pagans.  They did not go to the theater, shun away from the gladiatorial games, did not participate in public sacrifices. They too did not want to decorate and ornate with wreaths their houses under the excuse or motive of any public feast and celebration; and some rigorists like Tertullian and Origen, denied also the need of military service.  For the rest, the Christians recognized the rights of the state.  They followed the precept of Christ (Mt 22:21 and parallels) and the apostles (Rm 13:1; Pt 2:13-17), that is, they conscientiously fulfilled their duties toward the Emperor (Clem., 1Cor. 61; Polycarp, Phil. 12,3; Athenagoras, Legatio 377; Theopilus, Ad Auth. I,11; Tertullian, Apol. 30).  But that way of feeling and acting was enough to make them suspects and enemies of the Roman State and Emperor (Tert., Apol, 35).

            On the other hand, from the very beginning, the most fantastic calumnies, traces of which can be found in the writings of the Roman historians Tacitus (55-120) (Annals XV, 44) and Suetonius (The Twelve Caesars, 16), were spread about the Christians.  Most of these calumnies were fomented, no doubt, by the Jews of the dispersion, due to their hatred of Christianity.  On the other hand, it was also due paradoxically to the widespread anti-semitism already prevalent in antiquity, which considered Christianity at the beginning, a sect of Judaism.

           

Accusations Against the Christians

            The main accusations can be reduced to four:

a.     The abstention from the part of the Christians of the cult of the State and their faith in God, pure and without images, was interpreted by pagans as “atheism” (Justin, Apol. I,6,13; Athen., Leg. 3-12; Marty., Polycarp 3) and, consequently, as a collection of all wickedness.

b.     By a monstrous confusion, the Christian Eucharistic banquet and agape were presented as a “Thyestean Banquet”[1] (Sacramentum infanticidii et pabulum inde; [Tert. Apol. 7, 1] that is ritual infanticide or ritual killing.  Christians were accused of killing children and eating them at banquets.

c.     And again, this very Eucharistic celebration was the occasion of “oedipoid impurity” (incest) [Justin, Apol. I.26; Dial. 10; Leg. 31-36; Theop. Ad Auth. III, 4-15; Minucius Felix, Octavius 9.30.31; Tert. Apol. 7-9).  The Christians were accused of having incestual relationships, perhaps because they called themselves brothers and sisters and had very close lives.

d.     Enemies of the national culture.  The Christians did not identify themselves totally with the way of life of the Romans.  The Christians belong to all races and people and rejected the Roman ways, as we have seen.  Hence they were considered enemies of the national culture.

There were many other charges, such as: superstition, witchcraft, adoration of the sun, adoration of the head of an ass, and many more, of which Suetonius (Nero, 16: Superstitio nova et malefica), Tertullian (Apol. 16) and Minucius Felix (Oct. 9), make mention.  Tacitus, (55-120), Epictetus (42-101), and Mark Aurelius (161-180) accuse the Christians of hate against the human race (misanthropy) and of being habitually disposed to death.

            Other accusations still were of not going to the theater, to the gladiatorial games.  The Christians did not participate in the public sacrifices, they led a sad and lugubrious life; they tried to escape public life; they lacked friends and made converts of the lowest classes.  [They were “gentes latebrosae, conveniebant secreto praesertim conventibus noctiurnis”].  In one word, they were guilty of all the imaginable and possible crimes.  Because of this, people were not sympathetic towards the Christians.  People usually reject all those who don’t think like them and more so if it looks that those who do not follow them feel a little derision.  People are suspicious of everything, misinterpret things and, without realizing, pass from suspicion to hatred and from hatred to open hostilities.  Accusations, then, were mounting.

            Towards the end of the 2^nd century the Christians were accused, because of their contempt for the pagan deities, of being the cause of public calamities, such as plagues, floods, wants, barbaric invasions. (Tert. Apol. 40; Orig. In Math. Comm-Serm. 39; Cyprian, Ad Demet. 23. Arnob. Adv. Nat. I,13,26; Augustine, De Civ. Dei, 11,3).  This blame for all the ills that befell the Roman world is described by Tertullian thus: “If the Tiber cometh up to the walls, if the Nile cometh not up to the fields, if there be any earthquake, if any famine, if any pestilence, The Christians to the lions is forthwith the word.”

            This accusation was very dangerous because it was so insistent and widely diffused up to the end of the 4^th and 5^th centuries, while the others lost ground.  The Christians, too, were accused of being narrow-minded bigots, because they held that it was sinful to make images of the pagan gods or to offer sacrifices to them.  Every artist and image maker, every butcher who sold the meat of animals offered to the gods, and every priest of the gods who shared in the profits of their worship, was the sworn enemy of the Christians.  Because of this, the Christians were accused of being “unproductive kind of people” Infructuosi negotiis, Tert. Apol. 42,43; cfr. Acts, 19:24ff).

            With these accusations against the followers of Christ, so widely accepted by the pagans, it is not strange that already during the 2^nd century bloody explosions of revenge and hatred took place against the Christians and that the popular fury took a great many number of lives.  Not only the populace reacted against the Christians but also the Roman “Proconsuli” in the provinces, either because of private denunciations or because of popular pressure or even through their own private initiative.  Yet from the middle of the 3^rd century it is the State which systematically organized the persecutions against the Christians.  These persecutions were ordered by the emperors themselves with general edicts, with the idea of exterminating the Christian Church as a presumed enemy of the State.  In the period between Decius (249-251) and Diocletian (284-305) the battle against the Church of Christ was to death, a battle between two great powers: the Church of Christ and the mighty Roman Empire.  It lasted until the last pagan Emperor himself bowed before the standard of the Cross.

 

Juridical Character of the Persecutions

            Why did Rome, which was otherwise tolerant of all kinds of religions, even the most degrading, rave with such fury against Christianity?  This is one of the most exciting and, at the same time, most controversial issues among scholars.  Of the many explanations offered by historians three theories stand out as the most important and representative:

a.     System of Penal Laws of Common Right – The persecutions were the effect of the application of laws previously existing.[2]

The existence of a special legislative act explicitly prohibiting Christianity has nevertheless been much discussed.  It has been said that it was sufficient to apply to Christians existing laws specifying penalties for the crimes of joining un-authorized societies (decreed by Trajan 98-117 AD), practice of magic and sorcery, atheism (crimen lease romanae religionis)[3] and sacrilege or of lese majeste, as this would involve them in crimes equivalent to high treason which is punishable by confiscation of all property and goods and death for the authors of hostile actions against the Roman People and public security as stipulated in Lex Julia Maiestatis.  But sacrilege properly so called supposes a positive criminal act, which could not be found in the case of Christians for the crime of lese majeste, closely connected, in point of fact, with that of sacrilege, committed in refusing to take part in the cult of the emperor’s divinity, we do not see Christians explicitly accused of this in the first two centuries: it is only in the third century that the magistrates tried regularly to force Christians to sacrifice to the divinity of the emperor in consequence of new edicts of persecutions, and condemned them if they refused to do so.

Doubtless one may say that the crime existed implicitly from the beginning inasmuch as Christians did not recognize the emperor as a god, and hence adopted the attitude which was bound to lead to their being regarded as defective citizens or subjects.  But before the third century no text proves that the proper motive of the persecution of the Christians was the refusal which made them guilty of lese majeste.  They were accused rather, at first, of failing to reverence the gods of the Empire in general, and even this did not make them officially atheists, as they were judged to be by popular ignorance.

The same is true of the accusation of other especially serious crimes against common law, such as magic, incest, or infanticide: it was never more than popular rumor which imputed these to the Christians, and official justice did not take up these accusations.  Hence we shall not find in previous penal law the precise juridical basis of the persecutions.

b.     Coercive System – they were due merely to the coercive power (police power) of the magistrates.[4]

Others have sought for this basis in the power of coercitio, i.e. police powers which belonged to all the Roman magistrates.  In order to maintain public order, these had a very extensive authority which went as far as putting to death anyone who disturbed the peace.  Hence it is suggested that it was a public disturbance that the Christians, disobeying the injunction to abandon a profession of faith which was in itself a public disorder, were condemned by the decision of the magistrates, without any need of applying to them a more expressed law.

But if the magistrates merely had to exercise towards the Christians their power of coercitio, why did they more than once think it necessary to consult the prince as to the way to treat them, as we see Pliny the Younger writing to Trajan; and other governors under Antoninus or Marcus Aurelius?  Moreover, Pliny speaks formally of the steps taken against the Christians as resulting from the exercise of criminal jurisdiction, cognition, and accordingly, not as a result of coercitio. Lastly, the coercitio extending to the capital penalty could not be extended in the case of a Roman citizen.

c.      Special Legislation Against the Christians[5]

This is the most common and probable opinion.  Scholars defend, following Tertullian, that from the earliest times, from Nero’s reign (54-68 AD) and Domitian (81-95 AD), there were special laws against the Christians or new interpretations of laws already in existence that would be the same as to enact a new law.

            Thus we are compelled to accept the reality of special legislative measures against the Christians, of which the Emperor Nero was the author, as in fact affirmed by Melito of Sardes, Tertullian and Sulpicius Severus.[6]  From Nero’s reign to that of Septimus Severus (193-211), who introduced a new regime, the juridical situation of Christians in the Roman Empire remained the same; they were proscribed, not as guilty of crimes against the common law such as incest, cannibalism or magic, as imputed to them so often by popular hostility, itself caused by difference of beliefs and customs, nor of the crimes of sacrilege or lese majeste, but as guilty of professing a religion which had been forbidden: Christianos esse non licet.  Thus it is the very name of Christian, the nomen Christianum, that was forbidden and condemned, as Christian apologists more than once contended.

            The questions put about half a century later by Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia, to the Emperor Trajan as to the attitude to be adopted towards the Christians of his province, and asked the imperial rescript which sent him the instructions asked for, prove the existence of an earlier legislation, the application of which had only to be clarified.  Tertullian asserts, moreover, in the most formal manner that Nero was the first to promulgate a law against the Christians, and it cannot be doubted that the proscription of Christianity as such dates back to him: the Christians, first of all persecuted as incendiaries through the dishonest expedient of the frightened Nero, were evidently subsequently outlawed after police enquiries which ascertained their religious profession.

            Until then they had continued to be confused with the Jews in the eyes of the Roman authority; they were regarded doubtless as a particular sect, and thus enjoyed the privileges which enabled the Jews to retain their national religion in the empire without performing acts of obedience in respect to the official cults.  But henceforth a discrimination was made; possibly the Jews themselves were partly responsible for this, and this may be the most exact element in the thesis which regards the Jewish element as in some measure the cause of the outbreak of the first persecution.  Henceforth Christianity was no longer regarded as a dissident form of Judaism, and had no longer any right to the favors enjoyed by the latter.  Consequently, the Christians were now bound, as citizens of the Empire, to comply with the minimum of religious conformity called for the idea of the ancient State or else disappear.  Their faith, which allowed no concession internal or external, to polytheism, excluded such conformity, and so there remained only outlawry, and this is undoubtedly the basis of the legislation made in their regard by Nero, and which may be summed up in one short phrase; non licet esse Christianos, (it is not lawful for Christians to exist).

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[1] Thyestes, n. L. Gr. Thyestes – in Greek legend, a brother of Atreus and son of Pelops. Thyestean banquet – banquet at which human flesh is served.  Thyestes had unwittingly eaten his own children served to him by an enemy at a banquet.

[2] Systema legum poenalium iuris communis

[3] cf. Tertullian, Apol. 24.

[4] Systema coercitionis

[5] Systema legum specialium religionem Christianem proscribenda.

[6] “Institutum Neronianum”, Apol. 5.

CHAPTER IV THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

CHAPTER IV

THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY

IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Introduction

            The great missionary journeys of St. Paul and the wonderful work of Peter and the rest of the apostles make us think of the extraordinary spread of Christianity and its establishment in most of the Roman provinces in apostolic times (cf. Rom 1,8; Col 1,6,23), while in the rest of the known world its spread was slow and more difficult.

            In the most important cities of the Roman Empire we find Christian communities of considerable size.  For a very long time Christianity continued to be substantially a religion for the cities, and only slowly and with much difficulty did Christianity establish itself in the countryside.  The first groups came from the Jews of the diaspora and from the pagans, the “devout men who feared God” (Cf. Acts 10,2) (viri religiosi et timentes Deum).

            The new religion took root in the middle and low classes of society: artisans, traders, soldiers, slaves and among women.  We find, however, from the very beginning, rich Christians, learned and high people among the faithful, as we can see from the Acts of the Apostles (Sergius Paulus: Areopagus) and from the Pauline Letters.  From the end of the 2^nd century the number of learned and important Christians grew and even people belonging to the Roman nobility, to the Roman Army and officials of the Empire became Christians.  Tertullian (ca. 155-228) says: “we are but of yesterday and we fill your towns, your islands, even your camps and your palaces, the Senate and the forum; we have left you only your temples.”  By the year 250 Christianity was so widely extended that the universal and ferocious persecutions which began at this time could not hinder its final victory.

            By the beginning of the fourth century, out of a possible population of 50 or 60 million in the Roman Empire, the number of Christians may have been seven or eight million (ca.); most of them in the East.  The Christians were particularly strong in Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, Armenia, Egypt and in some regions in Central and Northern Italy, in North-West Africa, in Spain and in Gaul.  Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and still more the Church Fathers of the 4^th and 5^th centuries saw in this wonderful and rapid expansion of Christianity, among the many obstacles and difficulties, a clear proof of its supernatural origin.  In fact, for them this was the literal fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy: the grain of mustard seed had become a tree, which had began to cover the earth.

           

Major External Causes for the Rapid Diffusion of Christianity

            We are not well informed in general about this mysterious expansion, about the external diffusion of this new reality that was Christianity.  All we know is that its spread surprisingly fast, even in the face of the mightiest opposition.

            When we proceed to enumerate the “causes” of this rapid diffusion of Christianity we must never lose sight of a mysterious reality behind everything.  We cannot answer this question on the causes of this rapid diffusion of Christianity just by citing three or four sentences continuously repeated.  It is possible to bring in some concrete historical facts, but the total process in which numberless causes operate and actuate at the same time.  But, in fact, this growth proves the truth of one of the most important theological principles, “gratia praesupponit naturam.” That is, the decisive thing is the divine grace; yet grace does not work by chance or magic, but orderly, in accordance with the natural realities.

            With this brief introduction let us now examine the “external realities” that favored the rapid diffusion of Christianity or those that actually promoted its advance.  Some of the most important have been mentioned already in the chapter dealing with the State of the World at the time of Jesus.  In this chapter on the diffusion of Christianity we will follow the noted and famous Protestant historian Adolf Harnack.[1] Harnack mentions a number of causes, external to Christianity, that greatly helped in the spreading of the Christian religion.  These were the following:

.

The Hellenization of the East

            The “Hellenizing of the East,” (in part also) of the West, which had gone on steadily since Alexander the Great; or, the comparative unity of language and ideas which this Hellenizing process had produced.  Not until the close of the second century AD does this Hellenizing process appear to have exhausted itself, while in the fourth century, when the seat of the empire was shifted to the East the movement acquired a still further impetus in several important directions.  As Christianity allied itself very quickly though incompletely to the speech and spirit of Hellenism, it was in a position to avail itself of a great deal in the success of the latter.  In return it furthered the advance of Hellenism and put a check to its retreat.

The World-Empire of Rome

            The world-empire of Rome and the political unity which it secured for nations bordering on the Mediterranean; the comparative unity secured by this world-state for the methods and conditions of outward existence, and also the comparative stability of social life.  Throughout many provinces of the East, people felt the emperor really stood for peace, after all the dreadful storms and wars; they hailed his law as a shelter and a safeguard.  Furthermore, the earthly monarchy of the world was a fact which at once favored the conception of the heavenly monarchy and conditioned the origin of a Catholic or Universal Church.

Rapid Communication

            The exceptional facilities, growth, and security of international traffic: the admirable roads, the blending of the different nationalities; the interchange of wares and of ideas; the personal intercourse; the ubiquitous merchant and soldier – one may add the ubiquitous professor, who was to be encountered from Antioch to Cadis, from Alexandria to Bordeaux.  The Church thus found the way paved for expansion; the means were prepared and the population of the large towns was a heterogeneous and devoid of a past as could be desired.

The Acceptance of the Essential Unity of Mankind

            The practical and theoretical conviction of the essential unity of mankind, and of human rights and duties, which was produced or at any rate intensified, by the fact of the “Orbis Romanus” on the one side and the development of philosophy upon the other, and confirmed by the truly enlightened system of Roman jurisprudence, particularly between Nerva and Alexander Severus.  On all essential questions the Church had no reason to oppose, but rather to assent to, Roman law, that grandest and most durable product of the empire.

The Birth of Democratic Ideas

            The decomposition of ancient society into a democracy; the gradual equalizing of the “Cives Romani” and the provincials, of the Greeks and the barbarians; the comparative equalizing of classes in society; the elevation of the slave class, in short, a soil prepared for the growth of the new formations by the decomposition of the old.

Religious Policy of Rome

            The religious policy of Rome, which furthered the interchange of religions by its toleration, hardly presented any obstacles to their natural increase or transformation or decay, although it would not stand any practical expression of contempt for the ceremonial of the State-religion.  The liberty guaranteed by Rome’s religious policy on all other points was an ample compensation for the rough check imposed on the spread of Christianity by her vindication of the State-religion.

The Existence of Associations and Organizations

            The existence of associations, as well as of municipal and provincial organizations: in several respects the former had prepared the soil for the reception of Christianity, while in some cases they probably served as a shelter for it.  The latter actually suggested the most important forms of organization in the Church and thus saved her the onerous task of first devising such forms and then requiring to commend them.

The Irruption of Syrian and Persian Religions

            The irruption of the Syrian and Persian religions into the empire dated especially from the reign of Antoninus Pius.  They had certain traits in common with Christianity, and although the spread of the Church was at first handicapped by them, any such loss was amply made up for by the new religious cravings which they stirred within the minds of men – cravings which could not finally be satisfied apart from Christianity.

 

All these outward conditions … brought about a great revolution in the whole human existence under the empire, a revolution which must have been highly conducive to the spread of the Christian religion.  The narrow world had become a wide world; the rent world had become a unity; the barbarian world had become Greek or Roman; one empire, one universal language, one civilization, a common development towards monotheism, and a common yearning for saviors.

.

The Major Internal Causes for the Rapid Diffusion of Christianity

            We have to look for some internal causes to be found in Christianity itself.  Is it possible for us, so far away from the events and facts, to pinpoint the internal causes of this unparalleled diffusion?  Is there anything inherent to Christianity itself favoring the unstoppable expansion of early Christianity?

            Indeed, there are many causes inherent to Christianity.  A good historian must not conform himself with external causes, forgetting the basic historical reasons explaining any historical event.  In the case of Christianity’s marvelous expansion in the Roman empire, the cause has to be found in Christianity itself.

            Among the forces of attraction inherent to Christianity we find above all:

The Force of the Truth

            The force of the truth which proved all the more effective since the Gospel so far surpassed in contents and understanding all the wisdom of the world and gave an answer to the problems that perennially torment the human spirit, such as, a) the problem of God, b) the immortality of the soul [If man dies shall he live again?] c) the meaning of human life [Where do we come from? Where are we going to?] d) the problem of retribution.  Christianity won over to its cause men who like Justin (ca. 100-168), Tatian (ca. 120-183) and Dionysius had made all the necessary efforts to discover the truth in the different systems of pagan wisdom, but all was in vain.  As St. Justin rightly says, (Dial, 8) they discovered in Christianity the only true philosophy on which to hope, the only one to be put into practice.

            Christ’s doctrine was, for the pagans, something absolutely new and unheard of.  Christianity gave and offered them “the Gospel of the Savior and of Salvation, the Gospel of love and fraternal help, the religion of the spirit of fortitude, of moral behavior and holiness, the religion of authority and reason, of mysteries and transcendent revelations, the message of the new people and of the third kind of men, the religion of the book and of the historical realization” (A. Harnack; cfr. Bihlmeyer, o.c. p. 95).  The followers of Christ were convinced that their religion was totally new and something extraordinary had happened with the advent of Christianity, so that the old criteria of values were destroyed.  Ignatius of Antioch (ca. 35-107) declares (Rom. 3, 3): “Christianity is not the work of human persuasion but of divine greatness, for that it is hated the world over.”

The Gift of Charisms

            We must not forget the gift of charisms in the primitive Church (1 Cor. 12-14), first of all that of curing the sick and the expulsion of demons, the gift of tongues and many more extraordinary miracles which gave testimony to the truth (Justin, Apol. II, 6; Dial. 127; Adv. Haer. II, 32, 4); Tert., Apol. 23; De Anima 47; Origen, Contra Celsum I, 6, 46; IIIm 28; Cyprian, Ad Donatum 5; Eus. H.E., V, 3, 4).

The Life and Fervor of the First Christians

            A great importance in the rapid expansion of Christianity has the life and fervor of the faith of the first Christians.  Men and women, noble and plebeian, free and slave, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, officials, magistrates, traders, and soldiers: all of them felt the need of expanding and spreading Christianity like apostles.  According to the primitive Christian conception every Christian must be a missionary of his faith in virtue of the grace and duty conferred upon him in baptism.

            Not only Christian writers, but also pagans [Pliny the Younger (62-120), Celsus, (II cent.), Galenus (ca. 129-200), the Emperor Julian the Apostate, (361-63)] testify that:

a.     The life of the Christians as such was a most eloquent sermon in that pagan atmosphere and that the example of their virtues procured for the Church many new converts.

b.     The severe customs, their chastity, their fraternal love and admirable charitable activities were bright lights in that dark and obscure background which was the pagan world, the pagan society, filled with vices, with mutual aversion and hate.

The Christian apologists of the 2^nd century, such as Aristides (c. 15,16) and the author of the Letter to Diognetus, speak of the wonderful life of the Christians.  But not only these apologists, but also men like Tertullian (ca. 155-228) (Apol. 39), Minucius Felix (Octavius, p.31). According to Origen, (185-254) in his Contra Celsum (III, 29) the Christians, in comparison to the pagan masses, were “authentic celestial stars on earth.”[2]  St. Justin (100-168), rightly believes that the wonderful examples given by the Christians were the motives why many people embraced Christianity (cfr. Apol. I, 16).  Tertullian, (Apol. 39) reminds us of the common pagan exclamation despising the Christians: “Look how they love one another and are ready to die for one another.”  The Emperor Julian, the Apostate (361-363) (Epistula, 49), said that the rapid diffusion of Christianity was due to its charitable work, to the care given to the dead and to the holy life (in his eyes hypocrisy) of the followers of Christ.

Martyr’s Heroism

            One of the main and decisive arguments for conversion was, however, the strength and fortitude of the Christians during persecution and above all, the martyr’s heroism.  These people were ready to suffer anything, even death for Christ.  The great Apologist St. Justin (100-168) (Apol. II, 12), testifies that this fortitude of the Christians had broken in him the conviction of their guilt and, in the end, had moved him to become a Christian.

Y es asi yo mismo, cuando seguia la doctrina de platon, oia las calumnias contra los cristianos; pero, ai ver como iban intrépidamente a la muerte y a todo lo quer se tiene por espantoso, me puse a reflexionar ser imposible qué tales hombres vivieran en la maldad y en el amor de los placeres.  Porque qué hombre, amador del placer, que intemperante y que tenga cosa buena devorar carnes humanas, pudiera abrazar alegremente la muerte, que ha de privarle de sus bienes, y no trataria más bien por todos los medios de prolongar indefinidamente su vida presente y ocultarse a los gobernantes, cuante menos soñar en deleitarse a si mismo para ser muerto?

The great Tertullian, writing to the pagan proconsuli exclaimed: “Afflict us, torment us, crucify us, - in proportion as we are mowed down, we increase; the blood of Christians is a seed” (Apol. 50), “Cruciate, torquete, damnate, atterite nos;…plures efficimur, quotiens metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum.” And not only St. Justin and Tertullian, but also most of the Fathers and Christian writers of the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries (Acta Apolloni 24; Adv. Haer. IV, 33, 9; Ep. Ad Diog. 7; Origen, Contra Celsum, VII, 26).  Lactantius (245-338) the great African Christian writes: “Augetur religio Dei, quanto magis premitur.” (Inst. V, 19, 9) “The religion of God grows the more it is persecuted.”

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[1] The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Chicago, 1961.

[2] Cf. St. Paul, Philippians 2, 15: “Do all things without grumbling that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”